Im looking for baby/children’s book recommendations for my upcoming niece. My SIL is asking for a book instead of a card for her shower. From past experience most of the common classics have multiples. Considering they are being used as “cards” they can’t be exchanged with the personalized messages. I’m hoping to find something that no one else would pick. It’s a large shower so l’m aiming for pretty obscure (in the US at least).
We are in the US but SIL speaks multiple languages and lived in Europe for most of her life. I thought a foreign language/ culture/county she has a connection to would be a thoughtful touch.
I would love any advice or suggestions. Please include Title, Author, Country of origin as well as language.
5 comments
An English language book that is rather obscure in the US: “My Cat Likes To Hide In Boxes”. It’s a book made up of simple rhymes about cats from around the world. “The cat from Berlin, played the violin”. Each series of verses ends with “…but my cat likes to hide in boxes”. This is a Canadian book that gained some popularity in the UK, but not the US.
The French translation in particular of the Dr. Seuss book “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” (“Poisson Un, Poisson Deux, Poisson Rouge, Poisson Bleu”) is beautifully done with how the rhymes and the rhythm of the book is captured.
*Certains sont rouges*
*D’autres sont bleus*
*Certains sont jeunes*
*D’autres sont vieux*
There is also a very sweet book by author Shelley Admont, who publishes children’s books in multiple languages. She has a book called “Buonanotte Tesoro” (Goodnight, my dear). Its about a boy who doesn’t want to go to sleep, so his father suggests the boy start planning the dream that he wants to have tonight. Some publications of the book are in Italian (only), others have both the Italian story and the English story.
Where in Europe? It’s a continent, not a monolith, and cultures vary a lot. More often than not even neighbouring countries that share a language, let alone regions with different languages/cultures in the same country, won’t have the same children’s books, nursery rhymes, songs, etc. – so whatever we recommend might not mean shit to your SIL.
I have no idea what books are known in the US but here’s some that are popular here: The Little Polar Bear; The story of the mole who knew it was none of his business (both originally published in German), and Monkie which is a picture book without text so language doesn’t matter.
Tove Jansson: The book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My
The author was a Swedish-speaking Finn, so the book was originally written in Swedish. It’s a picture book, and suitable for quite small kids.
Astrid Lindgren’s books! Obviously originally written in Swedish. She has written so many great books, that it’s impossible to choose favourites. One maybe not so well known, that I loved when I was little, was a book called “I don’t want to go to bed”. Check it out!